[July 03, 2009]

Lori Drew proclaims innocence in the wake of acquittal by judge

Jul 03, 2009 (St. Louis Post-Dispatch - McClatchy-Tribune News Service via COMTEX) -- Lori Drew, acquitted this week of cyber-bullying-related charges connected to the 2006 suicide of 13-year-old Megan Meier, proclaimed her innocence Friday and said she hopes to move on.

"In my view, it was proper that this case was dismissed, primarily because I simply did not do what the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles accused me of doing," Drew said in a prepared statement.

The statement also said the Drew family shares the Meier family's grief and that Drew hopes the legal outcome would be "a turning point for all families involved in returning to a more-normal life." A jury in Los Angeles found Drew guilty Nov. 26 of three misdemeanor charges of misusing the California-based MySpace social network in harassing Megan, a neighbor and rival of her daughter in Dardenne Prairie, Mo.

But U.S. District Judge George H. Wu overturned the verdict in an oral ruling Thursday that will not be final until he puts it in writing.

Megan's parents, Ron and Tina Meier, and Vicki Dunn, Tina Meier's aunt, did not respond to multiple messages left Thursday and Friday.

On NBC's "Today Show" on Friday morning, Tina Meier said that Drew "can't even come close" to sharing her family's grief.

"As ... Megan's mom, I wanted to see her go to jail," Meier said, to set a precedent and show the risks of cyber-bullying.

But she acknowledged that there was some measure of justice because of the attention that the case, and Drew, had received.

Drew's lawyer, H. Dean Steward, declined a reporter's request to interview his client Friday.

"She's fine. That's really all I can say," he said. Steward did say Drew and her family have moved out of Missouri and were trying to "return to some kind of normalcy." He added, "Family has really been the only way she's been able to get through this." Steward had argued in a legal filing that Drew could not afford a fine. On Friday, he would not discuss the legal expenses, other than to say that Drew's parents helped out with expenses.

Steward also said that he reduced his fees, calling the case a "once in a lifetime opportunity for a lawyer (to) handle a case being discussed in law school right now." Drew's civil attorney, Jim Briscoe, said Friday he believes that the legal deadline for a civil suit over the matter has most likely passed.

Prosecutors claimed Drew violated an anti-hacking law as mastermind of a scheme to gather information and eventually harass Megan using the fake persona of a teenage boy. But a former employee of Drew's testified at trial that she _ not Drew _ set up the account.

In Thursday's ruling, Wu said the case could raise constitutional questions and put everyone who had ever violated a Web site's terms of service at risk.

While Wu's ruling is not final, Steward said that it would be very unusual for a judge to change his mind at this point. He said it also is unlikely that federal prosecutors would get permission from the Justice Department to appeal Wu's ruling.

He was confident about Drew's chances if the prosecution is not over.

"I've never seen a case as clear that they would lose," he said, citing among other things a First Amendment right protecting online conversations and the vagueness of the statute.

___ (c) 2009, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

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